CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) ? The Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria on Saturday due to deteriorating conditions in the country, as state security forces battled rebels holding three suburbs just outside the capital Damascus.
The decision comes days after the Arab League called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, following 10 months of revolt against his rule. It will take an Arab peace plan to the U.N. Security Council next week.
"Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league's council," Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement.
Arab League foreign ministers are expected to discuss early next month the possibility of withdrawing monitors completely, a League official said, but added that the secretary general could pull monitors out at any time if necessary.
A Syrian official said the government could not yet comment.
The Arab League's job was to observe implementation of its peace plan. Though its mandate was extended for a second month, critics lambasted the mission for its failure to stem bloodshed. It was further undermined when Gulf states withdrew their monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.
Diplomatic pressure, tempered by continued support from Russia and regional power Iran, has yet to halt Assad's crackdown on unrest that it blames on foreign-backed militants.
FIGHTING, DEFECTIONS NEAR CAPITAL
Fighting raged outside three rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Saturday, activists said. They said the army was trying to prevent insurgents from solidifying a stronghold just 15 minutes outside the capital.
But insurgents were emboldened by a string of reports of army desertions amid the fighting. Activists said a group of deserters brought with them the three tanks they operated.
A spokesman for the rebel forces, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said he did not have a complete tally but estimated that over 100 soldiers deserted in the area.
Activists told Reuters by telephone that rebels who control the towns of Saqba, Kafr Batna and Jisreen were exchanging fire with soldiers. Military forces earlier fired from tanks and had used anti-aircraft guns and mortars, they said.
Six residents were killed and dozens wounded as fighting raged, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A video uploaded by activists, purported to be from a rebel-held Damascus suburb, showed smoke rising from behind a mosque and heavy gunfire erupted in the background as residents screamed "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)."
It was not possible to verify the video or many of the details from activists, as media access is restricted in Syria
The FSA agreed a truce last week for state forces to withdraw from rebel-held Zabadani, 30 minutes from Damascus. It says the number of desertions there had forced the army's hand.
What began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule last March has grown more violent as rebels, including army defectors, began fighting back.
"I think they want to try to avoid another Zabadani situation here, so they hope to crush this. But there have been several army defections and we hope this will force them to negotiate," Abu Ishaq said on Skype from the town of Saqba.
Fighting also flared in central Homs province, activists said, after an oil pipeline was blown up on Saturday morning.
The United Nations said in December that more than 5,000 people had been killed by Syrian forces. Syria says over 2,000 security forces have been killed by militants.
The state news agency SANA said "terrorist groups" killed seven soldiers, including an officer, in the Damascus suburbs on Saturday. SANA also reported the burial of 28 members of Syrian security forces killed in several revolt hotspots across the country, showing pictures of bloodied corpses and a funeral procession lead by soldiers carrying flower wreaths.
U.N. RESOLUTION TALKS
In the central city of Hama activists said they found the bodies of 17 men previously in security force custody, shot in the head. They said the killing took place during a military offensive on the town this week.
On Friday, the Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed in Syria. Britain and France said they hoped to put the draft resolution to a vote next week.
The Arab League's deputy secretary general said the group was also in talks with Russia ahead of its Security Council meeting this week.
There was no comment yet from Russian officials, but Moscow's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin previously said Russia found the plan unacceptable though he said Moscow was willing to "engage."
Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft. Churkin said Moscow wanted a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change.
The prominent opposition Syrian National Council said it was joining the Arab League at its Security Council meeting to request "protection." The SNC has previously called for international forces to implement a no-fly zone in Syria.
Turkish officials say the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary in Turkey has risen in the past six weeks, with 50 to 60 arriving daily, taking the total living in refugee camps to nearly 9,600.
More than 6,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon.
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Joseph Logan in Dubai, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations and Simon Cameron-Moore in Istanbul)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_syria
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